Gonna have to wait till next month but WOW CIV5 OMG! :woot:

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Quoting: DrMcCoyThen it's a weird non-sequitur. Their claim was always that it's not "financially feasible"; nothing to do with the code being available.

That's their claim. I don't buy it, is all. If their financial health is that precarious, they must be worried sick about not being able to finish TW3.
Oh wait.
It may not bring in an insane amount of money, that I do not deny. But what has this whole mess brought them exactly, in comparison?

PS - My Steam is in €, too. Not that it makes a difference to them. Hence my comment. ;)

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Quoting: DrMcCoyWait, what? That's the first time I heard this claim.
Losing the source for TW2, in this day and age of proper source control and backups, and in the span of a few years, would be remarkably stupid.

That was no claim, mind you. Just pointing out the obvious: a proper port WAS and IS possible. But nooooo... Let's use a wrapper, it can't be worse than Wine, right? RIGHT? ;p

Quoting: DrMcCoy10€.

Valve begs to differ.

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So basically it's sad that:
[12:01] CDR: Yeah, porting Witcher 2 lulz
[12:02] VP: Yeah imma wrapper up that stuff derp
[12:05] CDR: Yeah, the port is released lmao
[12:06] liamdawe: WTF is wrong with this thing? The performance is crap.
[12:08] VP: whiiiiiine!!!!111!!1!111 mommy hes so mean wif me

nope.gif

The only things I see here are:
1. CDR doesn't give a hoot. Clear as day. No reaction, no statement, no nothing. Plus, I do NOT believe the source to TW2 is lost. It's THREE YEARS OLD, for Pete's sake.
2. VP are a bunch of whiners, unable to take any kind of criticism (sorry, as far as I'm concerned, valid criticism is to be endured, not whined upon).
3. Given those two... I don't think any of them will get any kind of money from me. Improvements or not, they're dead to me. Both of them. It pains me to give up on GoG, but this... Nope. Just nope.

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I want it too. It's a nice change from typical dungeon crawlers.

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Yes and no. Yes, because it's actually pretty well crafted by my standards, although the universe is as bland as they come; and no, simply because it's an RPG in disguise, more than a visual novel, just like Long Live The Queen is a Princess Maker in disguise.

Good introductions? I'd go with Planetarian - The Reverie of a Little Planet. Simply because it's short, intriguing, quite engaging, to the point, and rather representative of what a visual novel can stir in the long run. It falls short simply because it doesn't give you enough time to really root for the characters, but its universe I found quite impressive. It's one I still remember, and it's been a couple years.

If you want to play natively though, go with other Key games. Brace yourself, get Clannad or Kanon (seriously, unless you've seen the anime) and rlvm [External Link] and take your time. It may seem counterintuitive, but the Choose your own adventure comparison holds. Except one "book" paragraph can last a few dozen minutes. Or a few hours.

Or, if you want something else entirely: Katawa Shoujo. Now I've got mixed feelings about this one. Some characters grow on you, some are plain insufferable, the writing varies wildly at times, (is what you get for having a bunch of writers, I guess) and the sex scenes feel like you're reading a football commentary. They're absolutely awful. Clickfest through them though, and there's still something to like. Plus, this one's free.

I might also mention Analogue, except... Yeah, it's... weird. Rather Digital: A Love Story then. Which is also short and quite phenomenally well done. And is also free.

EDIT - Actually forgot to mention: Planetarian is a Kinetic Novel - i.e. there are NO choices. At all. It's just a story.

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Quoting: MikeI guess how easy it is to make one is the reason why there are so many.

Actually, it's not. It may be /technically/, but you gotta have a VERY strong writing for it to work. And not everyone is a Jun Maeda. Not even close. Quite the contrary, in fact.
There are so many BAD ones. ;)

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Can't say I don't understand. I like visual novels, but they really have to grip me from the start and never let go, or I feel the same as you. :)

Plus, western visual novels are an odd bunch. Sometimes close to their japanese roots, sometimes so far gone I can't even see the point.

Anyway, as far as Heileen is concerned, things only take off with the second one and the addition of other mechanics. But this one gives the background (although not all endings are canon, obviously).

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So basically you don't understand what people see in Choose your own Adventure books because you only read Tolkien. ;)
Or rather, you don't understand what people see in video games. Why wouldn't they rather read a book or watch TV?

I'm only half-kidding. Visual Novels are in a realm of their own, and it's not everyone's cup of tea. But for those who like it, it engages them in ways non-interactive stuff can't, and most other genres don't.

Have you ever watched Clannad, Liam? Maybe you should. The whole stuff, including After Story. Then when you realize by the end of the show you would have spent even MORE time with those characters, and would have ended up even more attached to them, and would have made other choices, and would have had insights into other "what ifs", you'll have a glimpse of why people love Visual Novels.

That's assuming, of course, you're not one to dismiss a show because it's animated (alas, there are such people). :)

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I played it before this update, nifty HoMM-lite thing, and well worth its price.

Just tried the update for the French translation. As usual, the result is infuriating and I had to quit after three minutes:
* It's a verbatim mess
* Capital letters aren't accented
* Text is bleeding out of its frame just about everywhere
* Spelling is approximative at best.
* Oh, and let's not forgetting mistranslations and untranslated strings...

Yay, devs STILL don't know what they're doing WRT localization. Nothing new under the sun. In other words: it's very good. IN ENGLISH.

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